can someone recomend a good middle of the road stretch guage?im not a pro i only assemble 1 engine every 2 or 3 years,ive never had a faliure but my power levels have increased and id like to learn to do it RIGHT.the ones at Jegs range from 49 bucks to almost 300.oo,BIG diff.thanks,AJ

I have and it works very good. I used it on my last two builds. I don't think that any of them are really easy to use but its the proper way. Next build I am going to weld a cheater to a box wrench and see how that goes. Probably do it to a ratcheting box wrench.

Make sure when you buy one it goes to .0005 and not .001

That exact stretch gauge is for sale right now on the board in Tools/equipment/Trailers for sale for $135

imho most if not all of the commercially sold gauges use a poor quality indicator. i elected to buy the frame off ebay and use a good mitutoyo digital indicator. you also want to make sure the indicator has enough spindle pressure to seat the tip securely

this is the frame

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rod-Bolt-Stretch...96f&vxp=mtr

for $43 it leaves a decent amount of money for a good indicator

That's good James. I have some good gauges . thanks